At last year's CES, 802.11ac was hardly prevalent on the show floor. Though other companies were still showing off their 802.11n capable routers, only Texas-based Buffalo had a prototype router set up at its booth for attendees to see. This year, the tables seemed to have turned, as the show floor was rampant with 802.11ac products, including varying routers from competing companies.

Interestingly enough, all of the routers featured here claim to be able to dial in a hearty 1300Mbps on their 5GHz band. Whether this is true or not remains to be seen—we haven't used any of them just yet—but one thing is for sure: if you're buying a new router this year, you may want to consider making the switch to 802.11ac after all. Fortunately, there were plenty of choices on display at CES, so here are a few of the models worth looking out for later this year.

The AirStation AC1750 Gigabit Dual Band Wireless Router (or, more simply, model WZR-1750DHP) will cost $179 and feature speeds up to 1300Mbps on the 5GHz band and 450Mbps on the 2.4GHz band. It also contains a dual-core chip for Buffalo's Beamforming technology, which provides faster Wi-Fi speeds and longer ranges. Additionally, it will ship with four gigabit Ethernet ports, as well as USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports for NAS-like functionality and printer sharing. It's expected to ship late this year.

Netgear announced a slew of products at its official CES 2013 press conference, one of which was the 802.11ac-compatible, dual-band gigabit D6200 Wi-Fi router. The router features built-in ADSL2+ model and Gigabit WAN with support for fiber-optic connections. It also comes with a proprietary featured dubbed Netgear ReadySHARE cloud that allows users to remotely access hard drives, printers, and flash drives that are tethered to the monitor. It will be available in April.

The Smart Wi-Fi Router AC1750 HD Video Pro, EA 6700 is one of the beefier router models the company showed off at CES. The dual-band EA 6700 supports up to 10 or more connected devices and can support streaming HD video, as well as Wi-Fi speeds of up to 1300Mbps on the 5GHz band and up to 450Mbps on the 2.4GHz band. As an added bonus, it also syncs up with Linksys's iOS and Android apps and features SmartMap, which offers a virtual representation of every device connected within the network. No word yet on its availability.

D-link AC1750 Dual-Band Gigabit Cloud Router, DIR-868L

D-link debuted a couple of new 802.11ac routers on the show floor, one of which is the DIR-868L: a dual-band gigabit, cloud-capable router with the ability to control its settings via a mobile app or the Web. The cylindrical shaped router is a nice change of pace from the standard "skinny box" model and features a Qualcomm-based processor inside to facilitate StreamBoost, which helps designate the appropriate amount of bandwidth for all of the devices connected to the router. The router should be available later this year.

Update: This article has been edited to fix a reference to SteamBoost technology using a processor manufactured by Broadcam. Qualcomm is the correct company behind the product. Ars regrets the error.

I haven't seen a mobile device (other than the iPad2) that will connect over 65Mb/s yet. Bandwidth costs power, and until someone develops a new battery, I don't think that's going to change much. For non-mobile devices, I still prefer a wire. That way I can still stream content while the microwave oven is on.

With the current price premiums for these as high as they are, I don't think buying one in advance of getting a laptop/tablet that supports ac is a good idea. Anyone know if we'll be seeing devices with it launch in a few months with haswell?

I'd like to get an 802.11ac wireless router plus a couple 802.11ac wireless bridges. Powerline networking is terrible in my home, and I'm not going to install network cable, so I am currently using wireless to connect some computers in other rooms. But if 802.11ac is as good as they say, I want to upgrade.

I haven't seen a mobile device (other than the iPad2) that will connect over 65Mb/s yet. Bandwidth costs power, and until someone develops a new battery, I don't think that's going to change much. For non-mobile devices, I still prefer a wire. That way I can still stream content while the microwave oven is on.

Wrong. Single antenna devices like smartphones and some tablets will benefit from this. Of course i'm talking about 802.11ac devices here, not 802.11n ones.80 MHz channels means that single antenna devices will connect at "up to 433 Mbit/s" as opposed to 65 Mbit/s.

Real world speeds will of course be much lower. Just like with 802.11n, but this is good news all around. You would use less battery since the radio wouldn't have to be on as much to download the same quantity. But of course we all know that this probably won't be the case, since we'll end up using more bandwidth anyway because we'll just end up getting higher quality content anyway.

"The dual-band EA 6700 supports up to 10 or more connected devices"... what on Earth does that mean? Up to 10, or more than 10? Also, who wrote this phrase? I'm not sure which would depress me more: that an Ars contributor would write this, or (as I suspect is more likely) it was cut-and-pasted from some innumerate ad copy.

I haven't seen a mobile device (other than the iPad2) that will connect over 65Mb/s yet. Bandwidth costs power, and until someone develops a new battery, I don't think that's going to change much. For non-mobile devices, I still prefer a wire. That way I can still stream content while the microwave oven is on.

Wrong. Single antenna devices like smartphones and some tablets will benefit from this. Of course i'm talking about 802.11ac devices here, not 802.11n ones.80 MHz channels means that single antenna devices will connect at "up to 433 Mbit/s" as opposed to 65 Mbit/s.

Real world speeds will of course be much lower. Just like with 802.11n, but this is good news all around. You would use less battery since the radio wouldn't have to be on as much to download the same quantity. But of course we all know that this probably won't be the case, since we'll end up using more bandwidth anyway because we'll just end up getting higher quality content anyway.

The other big win for single antenna devices, and one that they'll get even if they don't support wide channels, is that an X antenna router can talk to X of them concurrently by using one antenna to send each separate stream instead of idling antennas 2-X unlike a current n router which uses antenna one to talk to a phone while idling the rest.

"The dual-band EA 6700 supports up to 10 or more connected devices"... what on Earth does that mean? Up to 10, or more than 10? Also, who wrote this phrase? I'm not sure which would depress me more: that an Ars contributor would write this, or (as I suspect is more likely) it was cut-and-pasted from some innumerate ad copy.

They way I read that statement it means the router should allow 10 devices to connect and function properly without issue. Due to unknown variables it could be less (up to) and they say "up to" as a way to cover themselves from lawsuits if the router can't handle all 10 devices. The "or more" is meant to say it could handle more than 10 devices given the right variables as well.

Wonder if you'll have to buy a new router if the FCC frees up more spectrum?

We're hoping to figure that out... I bet some of these new ac routers will be able to take advantage of the new spectrum with a firmware update, but we're trying to get some better information from the vendors.

"The dual-band EA 6700 supports up to 10 or more connected devices"... what on Earth does that mean? Up to 10, or more than 10? Also, who wrote this phrase? I'm not sure which would depress me more: that an Ars contributor would write this, or (as I suspect is more likely) it was cut-and-pasted from some innumerate ad copy.

I'll second that; it's almost meaningless marketing pap and really shouldn't have been reprinted here. The next phrase wasn't much better, either:

"and can support streaming HD video"

... as can any 802.11ac router that's functioning properly, and for that matter any 802.11n router, and if you're close enough to the base station any 802.11g router (in theory, at least). "The new sun 3.0 can provide light during day" isn't news.

No mention of IPv6?... but surely one can presume by now that they're supporting IPv6 on both the WAN and LAN sides?

This was my question also, and I'd sure like to see some focus on this in the reviews when they come out.

On IPv6 Day last year, I tried enabling the support advertised by my Netgear router in order to convert my home LAN to IPv6-only internally, but couldn't get my Linux workstation to actually retrieve an address from it via DHCPv6

"The dual-band EA 6700 supports up to 10 or more connected devices"... what on Earth does that mean? Up to 10, or more than 10? Also, who wrote this phrase? I'm not sure which would depress me more: that an Ars contributor would write this, or (as I suspect is more likely) it was cut-and-pasted from some innumerate ad copy.

I'll second that; it's almost meaningless marketing pap and really shouldn't have been reprinted here. The next phrase wasn't much better, either:

"and can support streaming HD video"

... as can any 802.11ac router that's functioning properly, and for that matter any 802.11n router, and if you're close enough to the base station any 802.11g router (in theory, at least). "The new sun 3.0 can provide light during day" isn't news.

"The dual-band EA 6700 supports up to 10 or more connected devices"... what on Earth does that mean? Up to 10, or more than 10? Also, who wrote this phrase? I'm not sure which would depress me more: that an Ars contributor would write this, or (as I suspect is more likely) it was cut-and-pasted from some innumerate ad copy.

I'll second that; it's almost meaningless marketing pap and really shouldn't have been reprinted here. The next phrase wasn't much better, either:

"and can support streaming HD video"

... as can any 802.11ac router that's functioning properly, and for that matter any 802.11n router, and if you're close enough to the base station any 802.11g router (in theory, at least). "The new sun 3.0 can provide light during day" isn't news.

It's not "almost meaningless." It is ENTIRELY meaningless.

It's not ENTIRELY meaningless. It tells you you won't be able to connect 1,000 devices. And also 3 devices is definitely supported ;-)

(1) Any news on 802.11ad (even faster, apparently only shorter-range standard, 2 to 5 metres, so I believe)?I thought they were both supposed to be arriving around the same time (well early 2014 for "ad" perhaps – but by the time these ac hit in 13Q4, the ad will likely be being promo'd at CES!). Is that still true, if not then when is it likely to come and with what throughput?

(2) Where's "10Giga Ethernet"? Was the investment many made for Cat 6/6a cables in the home worth it I wonder, to get 10GE? _______________

• MBPros/MBAirs (MMini/iMac too), but if they have to do only one at a time, then MBPro should def be first here given they're portable & top of range. Though to be honest, Apple generally do update the radios in their whole ranges pretty quickly, as it's just the radio, and not something more expensive &/or difficult to do on any/all Mac's in simialr timeframe. • TCapsules (with ports USB3/Tbolt/10GigEthernet), *and* multiple HDDs (for much more backup storage). [...3TB (for £400!), gimme a break. I need 3x that at least! About time Apple did some proper storage devices of their own – but I guess they just can't add enough value & maintain price margin, so that'll be a non-starter, annoyingly!]. • Airport Express/Extremes: ^as above, without the storage.^ • Thunderbolt Monitor 2: with a Retina display and the ports above. • Apple Television: with an actual...you know...television screen. Giving super slick, fast, WLAN content access, and if on fast connection then WWAN too. (oh, and 4K anyone, haha! In fact, sod that, as leading pioneer broadcaster NHK Japan are going straight to broadcasting in 8K in a few years, saying it's too expensive for them to [and too much to expect customers to want to] upgrade twice in a decade!)

...well one can always dream, I suppose. (more likely, 'come back in 3 years', as per normal with Apple!)

(2) Where's "10Giga Ethernet"? Was the investment many made for Cat 6/6a cables in the home worth it I wonder, to get 10GE?

I recently saw a quote from an Intel spokesperson that 22nm was the point where making a 10GB ethernet controller became easy enough to mainstream it; so probably sometime in the next year or two as fab capacity at that level expands.

(2) Where's "10Giga Ethernet"? Was the investment many made for Cat 6/6a cables in the home worth it I wonder, to get 10GE?

I recently saw a quote from an Intel spokesperson that 22nm was the point where making a 10GB ethernet controller became easy enough to mainstream it; so probably sometime in the next year or two as fab capacity at that level expands.

If that is true, please remeber that if CPUs are at the 22nm node now, it means most other chips are still at 45nm (if not 65nm for simpler designs). So it may still be more than a year.

No mention of IPv6?... but surely one can presume by now that they're supporting IPv6 on both the WAN and LAN sides?

This was my question also, and I'd sure like to see some focus on this in the reviews when they come out.

On IPv6 Day last year, I tried enabling the support advertised by my Netgear router in order to convert my home LAN to IPv6-only internally, but couldn't get my Linux workstation to actually retrieve an address from it via DHCPv6

Exactly the same question here. I contacted D-Link a week or two ago after reading the previous IPv6 article here on Ars and, although many Ars commenters seemed to think practically all modern home routers were ready for IPv6, D-Link's reply was that at least the DGL-4500 was not IPv6 gold certified (I actually asked them to tell me if ANY of their devices were - still not sure about that answer).

EDIT: Or is IPv6 gold certified not the right question to ask? "IPv6 support" alone seemed less reassuring than an actual certification that the device passed tests validating key functionality was properly implemented.

(1) Any news on 802.11ad (even faster, apparently only shorter-range standard, 2 to 5 metres, so I believe)?I thought they were both supposed to be arriving around the same time (well early 2014 for "ad" perhaps – but by the time these ac hit in 13Q4, the ad will likely be being promo'd at CES!). Is that still true, if not then when is it likely to come and with what throughput?

"The dual-band EA 6700 supports up to 10 or more connected devices"... what on Earth does that mean? Up to 10, or more than 10? Also, who wrote this phrase? I'm not sure which would depress me more: that an Ars contributor would write this, or (as I suspect is more likely) it was cut-and-pasted from some innumerate ad copy.

I'll second that; it's almost meaningless marketing pap and really shouldn't have been reprinted here. The next phrase wasn't much better, either:

"and can support streaming HD video"

... as can any 802.11ac router that's functioning properly, and for that matter any 802.11n router, and if you're close enough to the base station any 802.11g router (in theory, at least). "The new sun 3.0 can provide light during day" isn't news.

It's not "almost meaningless." It is ENTIRELY meaningless.

Although I'd hate to defend marketing speak, they may be referring to local DLNA streaming from a USB connected hard drive and not streaming from the web. Without context, it should not have been reprinted though.

I haven't seen a mobile device (other than the iPad2) that will connect over 65Mb/s yet. Bandwidth costs power, and until someone develops a new battery, I don't think that's going to change much. For non-mobile devices, I still prefer a wire. That way I can still stream content while the microwave oven is on.

For most of what I do, I don't need anything faster than 5mbps, The reason I get excited about faster specs is that when I'm on the edge of my network and getting a hugely degraded signal, I'm much more likely to get that. I don't care about getting the max speed so much as getting one tenth of that max speed.

For the record, I run a wired network with 2 APs, because I plug in to transfer files.

(2) Where's "10Giga Ethernet"? Was the investment many made for Cat 6/6a cables in the home worth it I wonder, to get 10GE?

I recently saw a quote from an Intel spokesperson that 22nm was the point where making a 10GB ethernet controller became easy enough to mainstream it; so probably sometime in the next year or two as fab capacity at that level expands.

If that is true, please remeber that if CPUs are at the 22nm node now, it means most other chips are still at 45nm (if not 65nm for simpler designs). So it may still be more than a year.

That's what the second half of my statement about having to wait for additional fab capacity was about.

I could see Intel pushing hard on this to exploit their process lead to mainstream 10gbc nic chips when their lower cost rivals are unable to compete because they don't have access to suitable fabs yet.

While I can handle the ever accelerating march forward in technological capabilities (I just got my network and devices to pure 802.11n!!!! :madface: ) can I ask router manufacturers to stop reinventing the router case every year?

I understand small rectangular boxes are pretty dull and boring, but they are meant to be config and forget devices. I don't need 100 blinky lights, a large LCD bandwidth monitor, nor funky tower shapes and flying saucer inspired designs. These sit in a corner, mostly under a desk or maybe on a bookshelf somewhere. If I had my way they'd be in a closet. They don't need tall the 'bling bling' they end up with.

"The dual-band EA 6700 supports up to 10 or more connected devices"... what on Earth does that mean? Up to 10, or more than 10? Also, who wrote this phrase? I'm not sure which would depress me more: that an Ars contributor would write this, or (as I suspect is more likely) it was cut-and-pasted from some innumerate ad copy.

I'll second that; it's almost meaningless marketing pap and really shouldn't have been reprinted here. The next phrase wasn't much better, either:

"and can support streaming HD video"

... as can any 802.11ac router that's functioning properly, and for that matter any 802.11n router, and if you're close enough to the base station any 802.11g router (in theory, at least). "The new sun 3.0 can provide light during day" isn't news.

It's not "almost meaningless." It is ENTIRELY meaningless.

It's not ENTIRELY meaningless. It tells you you won't be able to connect 1,000 devices. And also 3 devices is definitely supported ;-)

"Up to or more than", taken as written, indicates that there is no limit to how many devices you can connect.

Until manufacturers begin openly touting, and speccing, their third-party firmware support, these promos are incomplete. The best router hardware on earth isn't much good if it's shackled to low-grade manufacturer firmware.

Keep your custom firmware router as a dedicated router, and plug the new hotness wireless router in as a dumb access point with no routing. You wind up with distinct hardware for each class of signal and no fear about the latest DDWRT/Tomato compatibility/configuration.

I did effectively that, but with a dedicated pfsense machine running on old/free x86 hardware.

Until manufacturers begin openly touting, and speccing, their third-party firmware support, these promos are incomplete. The best router hardware on earth isn't much good if it's shackled to low-grade manufacturer firmware.

Not all first party firmware's are inherently bad; I'm using an airlink router that shipped with a reskinned version of Tomato. I swapped it out for DD-WRT anyway since that was what I knew; but people who flash their routers firmware are a tiny fraction of the market. The fraction of the market who want an extremely simple and idiot proof firmware That Just Works(tm) is much larger.

Looks promising. 5Ghz N has been very disappointing. Very LIMITED range with on average about half the range of the 2.4 GHz N in real world installations. Even simple things such as hollow walls posed a big barrier. Open installations such as college campus great for 5GHz...offices...expensive as all get out to get the same range as 2.4.

I followed up with D-Link about the product referenced here in the Ars article. They said: "we would like to inform you that the DGL-5500 and the DIR-868L are not IPV6 certified." They provided their list of IPv6 certified products:

If you are looking for a device, might I suggest including the Asus RT-N66 series. There is one in AC as well. Very good reviews. Manufacturers firmware is not what you want to use. There is a series of firmware maintained by a guy named Merlin. It is based on the Asus code, but fixed and enhanced.

So is it just me, or does does 802.11ac fall largely into the category of... "why should I care?".

At a glance, what I understand is that's is basically gigabit WiFi, running on top of either 5Ghz, or 2.4Ghz... so kinda like 802.11n on steroids, right? Let me check my home Internet connection again... yep, it's still 10mb down and 1mb up.... even with my managed 24-port gigabit switch the Internet doesn't magically go faster... and at work... something of a similar order of magnitude.

Well, maybe I can stream video better... what with faster being better and all, right? Let's see... to oversimplify... the bandwidth requirement to stream a Blu-ray at 1080p is going to require what... 35mbps? Or with H.264 turned on... sub-10mbps? It seems that I can achieve those numbers without 802.11ac. Well, I guess that's true except for the folks that have a giant media server with their Blue-Ray and DVD content all ripped at home. What percent of the market is that? Sub 1%? It also seems like my Internet connection is going to be the limiting factor until someone digs up my front yard and puts in fiber.

I know... I'll finally be able to buy a 4k TV AND stream stuff to it. Except no... a spare $20k isn't going to be spent on a TV with no content (or even, a TV with awesome content). Especially if there's doubt as to if I can actually visually tell much of a difference between HD... 4k (or whatever we're calling it this week). So no, I don't need 802.11ac to handle 4k for... more than the foreseeable future.

Oh, but 802.11ac is full-duplex, right? Maybe there's some really clever bits turned-on, and/or extra antennas that mean we can talk at full-duplex... almost magically... over the wireless spectrum? Nope... 802.11ac fails again. Still half-duplex (but give this... http://arxiv.org/abs/1107.0607v1, and this a read: http://warp.rice.edu/trac/wiki/FAQ).

Ok - so I do have a use-case. I can replace the directional 801.11n wireless Ruckus bridge that links my remote buildings, and effectively upgrade from 170mb/s across the bridge to maybe gigabit at the remote sites. Yep - finally - a use-case (Not that I'm going to running out and rigging one of these consumer grade wireless solutions to replace my wireless bridge, but when I'm in the market to replace it, I'll give Ruckus another call).

In all seriousness, if I've missed something entirely, and 802.11ac is going to make my life better, please help me to see it. Otherwise, it sounds like a solution to a problem that doesn't really exist, or certainly one that doesn't exist in the consumer market right now.

I thought N series routers were going to be better then they ended up being. A lot of marking fluff and very little substance. All I see with these new routers is more compatibility issues, no devices that support the new standards and a lot of marketing to confuse the consumer. How many 5Ghz devices are on your WiFi now? Not many I am sure. How do they work at longer distances from router? Probably not as well as the old 2.4 band. The one constant in Wireless data transfer that inhibits signals will always be there. I think most people unless you really have a need for more local network speed. Remember this is not internet speed. It is local network speed. If you require that then maybe one of these new routers is for you. Otherwise I would wait until the devices begin to include hardware that support it.